Thursday, 28th March 2024 13:23
Home / Uncategorized / EPT11 Prague: Mercier and McDonald leave Negreanu behind in streak race

Registration closed today in the €50,000 Super High Roller event at the EPT Prague Poker Festival, and the non-appearance of Daniel Negreanu means that this is officially now a two-horse race. That may be misleading given that 33 players filled seats in the tournament room today, but I’m talking about the Super High Roller Streak Race(TM), a sub-plot in which precisely nobody except us in the media room has any interest, but that is mildly diverting nonetheless.

There have been 11 previous Super High Roller tournaments on the EPT, including four at the PCA. It started with Eugene Katchalov’s victory in the Bahamas in January 2011 and has been through Monaco, London and Barcelona since then, before arriving in Prague for the first time this week.

Before we arrived to the Czech Republic, there were three men who had played them all: Jason Mercier, Mike McDonald and the aforementioned Negreanu. But after Kid Poker opted to sit this one out, it’s only Mercier and McDonald who have been ever-present. And if it hadn’t been for a last-minute flight from St Kitts for Mercier, McDonald might have been left by himself.

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Jason Mercier: Ever-present

There’s no prize just for showing up in this game. In fact, plenty of players near the top of the “appearance” charts would have been better off had they never sat down at any of these events. But it still offers an indication of a player’s longevity that they are repeatedly able to fire off the biggest bullets in the European game.

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The Super High Rollers assess the field

One can assume that both Mercier and McDonald will also appear at the PCA next month, as well as at the Grand Final in Monaco at the end of this season, so the streak will likely continue at least until then. Negreanu will have to start his new streak at “one” when we reconvene in the Bahamas.

For the better part of this afternoon, the PokerStars Blog number-crunchers have been taking a look at the appearances and results from previous Super High Roller tournaments. They make some interesting reading.

Playing one bullet in each of the 12 Super High Roller events* would cost the equivalent of €886,268. (Calculated as $1 = €0.81 and £1 = €1.27)

Number of players contesting at least one EPT Super High Roller: 194*

Number of nationalities represented: 34

Top three gross winners at EPT Super High Roller events*:
€2,382,366 – Daniel Colman
€2,253,919 – Scott Seiver
€1,964,859 – Dan Shak

Most appearances at EPT Super High Roller events**:
12 – Jason Mercier, Mike McDonald
11 – Daniel Negreanu, Tobias Reinkemeier
10 – Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
9 – Philipp Gruissem, Erik Seidel
8 – Dan Shak, Tim Adams

Most bullets fired at EPT Super High Roller events**:
16 – Daniel Negreanu, Philipp Gruissem
14 – Tobias Reinkemeier, Jonathan Duhamel
13 – Jason Mercier, Mike McDonald

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Tobias Reinkemeier: Super High Roller regular

Gross win per bullet fired:
€493,340 – Rono Lo, China (1 tournament; 1 bullet)
€476,473 – Daniel Colman (3 tournaments; 5 bullets)
€463,377 – Nick Schulman (2 tournaments; 2 bullets)
€427,900 – Daniel Cates (3 tournaments; 3 bullets)
€385,650 – Vitaly Lunkin (2 tournaments; 2 bullets)

*including EPT11 Prague, currently under way
**excluding EPT11 Prague

Full coverage of the EPT Prague Poker Festival is on the main EPT Prague page. Super High Roller coverage, including blow-by-blow updates in the panel at the top, is on the Super High Roller page. And the Eureka main event is into the money and playing on. That’s on the Eureka Prague page.

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